#and what the game considers to be 'consequences for his actions' is OTHER PEOPLE suffering the consequences of his actions

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i would like to add on that there are plenty of scummy and/or poorly written narrative uses for redemption arcs, with or without forgiveness arcs! for example:

trying to retroactively minimize the significance of the harm that they've already done, just because they're trying not to do more of it.

trying to gloss over the significance of other harm that they've done--and might well be continuing to do! often with things included like shitty forgiveness arcs that they know would be bad PR elsewhere!--by using the fact that they're (supposedly) doing better about this thing over here as a distraction.

(this one in particular tends to go hand in hand with bigotry a LOT, because, well. it is about running PR for that character, for writers who do this shit. and some characters are considered more acceptable to walk all over than others lmao)

trying to guilt and emotionally manipulate the viewer with 'wow it's SOOOOOO hard and SOOOOOO brave of them to accept not being forgiven 🥺 SOOOOOO tragic that they just MUST deal with consequences for their actions and respect their victims' agency 🥺 you should feel sooooosososobad for them for crawling over a hundred miles of broken glass every day on their way to and back from the orphanage where they volunteer to make amends for their crimes 🥺🥺🥺🥺'

(if you can't tell i hate passive-aggressive forgiveness arcs poorly disguised as redemption arcs so much. SO much)

they completely devour the story until the author is convinced they've browbeaten the viewer into feeling exactly as much goodwill toward that character as they're supposed to. the entire story and every other character's arc, especially their victim's, now revolve around them totally until further notice. this one can (and often does) definitely fall under both going against themes and taking up too much screentime, but it's worth mentioning because it feels like the author is treating the character's arc as a magic the gathering deck you have to let them beat you with before they'll allow the story to move on.

the other characters Cannot Stop Fucking Singing Their Praises and talking about what a great guy they are, and undermining every single instance of the villain taking responsibility for their actions with 'he's so hard on himself, he's so much better than he thinks he is 🥺🥺🥺🥺'

the redemption arc happens in tandem with a corruption arc for their victim or victims, so that the story can ultimately demonize said victims by comparison to the people who hurt them in the first place. especially given how often that turns into them going after the person who hurt them, being fought off in their defense (after kicking a few puppies on the way there), and maybe even being defeated by the abuser themself. or guy who genocided their family, or oppressed their people. it's 'root for the abuser/racist/etc against the victim' with extra steps and a tragic-at-best strawman.

the redemption arc happens for a character who had much more opportunity to do so than a different villain--especially when that's the case because of privilege--so that the narrative can go 'this guy got his act together, [villain who is almost certainly an abuse victim and/or otherwise marginalized] has got no excuse 🙄'

the character goes right on being an asshole without improvement, just with 'they're trying to do better now!' tacked on in name only.

the character changes their behavior..... to be an asshole in a different way, because the values they've changed are only surface-level and the author doesn't actually understand what's wrong with their behavior.

(see: abuser who goes to therapy after being broken up with over hitting their ex, ~commits to having healthier relationships,~ and proceeds to use what they've learned in therapy to utterly destroy their next partner with emotional abuse instead.)

in general, again, the author just straight up not understanding what the character did wrong, why it was wrong, and the significance of that, before trying to make any kind of statement about the situation. for example, if you try to write a redemption arc for a racist villain without actually understanding or educating yourself on the dynamics involved in their racism.... as we have seen in many many many pieces of SFF media in particular, the results are a catastrophic racist mess lmao

and more! that's just off the top of my head. there are a lot of ways that creators and their narratives can be shitty about this, and they're worth talking about, both in their own right and because if people don't have a way to articulate them it's easy to fall into the kind of reductive thinking the OP is talking about.

but none of the examples i mentioned are something that shouldn't be in the story because they're a redemption arc (except maybe the part about, like, not trying to write redemption arcs for issues you Do Not Understand enough about to not be wildly offensive with your idea of what making amends would look like). the way they're being used is what sucks shit.

it's the author disrespecting the viewer's right or ability to decide how they feel about what they're presented with. it's the author taking potshots at victims and marginalized folks under the guise of celebrating the ability to change. it's the author being careless and ignorant about the statements they're making with the conclusions their story draws. it's the author making those statements and conclusions based on just plain nasty beliefs. it's the author being dishonest about the story they're presenting. and it's the author wrecking the craft and structure of the story itself so they can throw a tantrum at the idea that you don't like their special little boy.

and none of that has anything to do with what the character 'deserves.'

Invalid reasons for why a character should not be redeemed:

They’re too evil! - Redemption has nothing to do with how good or evil you were to begin with.

They don’t deserve it! - Redemption is not something that can be “deserved.”

Their actions are unforgivable! - Redemption has nothing to do with forgiveness.

It’s too late for them to change! - It is only “too late” to choose redemption when a character is dead (unless the scope of the story includes an afterlife in which change is possible).

Valid reasons for why a character should not be redeemed:

It doesn’t fit the themes of the story.

They’re not an important enough character for showing the process of a redemption arc to be worthwhile.

They’re more interesting as a character who isn’t doing the right thing.

It’s more satisfying to let them keep being evil.

It makes it more satisfying when they die.

There’s probably more, but you get the idea.

Remember, redemption is when someone realizes they are wrong, and takes steps to doing the right thing. That is not something that can be “deserved,” it is not something that hinges on forgiveness, and it is not something that it is ever too late for! …Unless the person is dead or something.

[vixensdungeon]

You've probably asked yourself

What are psychology mechanics in tabletop roleplaying games?

Or maybe you haven't, because that's a term used by like two people because it was made up by me. But others have come up with it before me! Warhammer, for example, uses "psychology" to mean effects like Hatred and Stupidity that modify the behavior of units on the battlefield. And that's thesame basic concept we're talking about.

Psychology is a game mechanic that represents a character's inner life and modifies their behavior. Some would call such a thing a "roleplaying mechanic," but those people are silly with a limited idea of what roleplaying is.

Psychology mechanics fall broadly into three categories, or three C’s. They are:

enCourage: if you do X I’ll give you a little treat Coerce: do X or suffer the consequences Compel: you do X

Encouraging mechanics seem the most in vogue in modern design, though I think the other two have their place. (I briefly considered naming the first one Consent but that wouldn't reflect how the mechanic acts upon the character, and in truth the player consents to all three by playing a game with such mechanics in it)

One game I think is particularly famous for its psychology rules, that being Call of Cthulhu with its Sanity mechanic, and I think King Arthur Pendragon deserves a nod for its passions and such, but we’re going to talk about a different one. Paradigm shifting in its time, seen as traditional these days, it’s Vampire: The Masquerade, the cool game for sexy goths!

To help us delve into the World of Darkness, we’ll employ the guidance of Malcolm Fisher, a Lick currently operating somewhere in England. Say hi, Malcolm!

I knew the vixen was trouble the moment she walked into my life, with an air of mystery and danger, and thighs that-

Ahem, yes, thank you. I think we don’t need to hear from Malcolm anymore, wouldn’t you agree? Instead we’ll use his character sheet to explore the various psychology mechanics in Vampire.

Vampire 5th Edition doesn't actually have an example of encouraging mechanics that I can remember (correct me if I'm wrong), so we'll briefly dip into its predecessors for that. Malcolm has two archetypes, a Demeanor and a Nature. In his case both match: Enigma. Whenever Malcolm acts in accordance to his Nature, in this case by perplexing other characters through actions that turn out to make sense in hindsight, he regains spent Willpower. This encourages Malcolm to act a certain way.

V5's compulsions are, despite the name, a coercive mechanic according to the terminology I made up. When Malcolm suffers a bestial failure on a roll, he might suffer from a compulsion. We'll assume that in this case it's not the one specific to his Clan, Malkavian, but rather one of the generic ones: Paranoia (still appropriate for him). Any action not taken to disengage from any perceived threat suffers a penalty. This coerces Malcolm to act a certain way by punishing him for doing otherwise.

Finally we have the big one, Frenzy. This prevents a player from saying something to the effect of "I would simply not flee in terror from fire." I'm terribly sorry but that's not for you to decide. Unless one decides to ride the wave and not resist the frenzy, the Storyteller takes control of the character. Seeing a large bonfire after a particularly draining investigation, Malcolm fails his Willpower roll and falls into a terror frenzy. He will flee from the fire in the most expedient manner, whether the player wanted to or not. This compels Malcolm to act in a certain way, because he has no other choice.

And there you have it. That's the general gist of psychology mechanics.

[shall-we-die]

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{Quality}

What is their most dangerous/toxic attitude?

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↬[Fandom]•⊰ {Obey me!}࿐

↬[Warnings]•⊰ {Angst}࿐

☰[Main list]•⊰ ────┈┈{0066}┈─╮

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╰┈➤Likes/Reblogs are appreciated࿐

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↬|Lucifer|

Lucifer's most dangerous/toxic behaviour would be how he deals with strong feelings of intense jealousy towards any of MC's interactions with other demon brothers. While he keeps his jealousy hidden under a confident and controlled demeanour, he has a tendency to subtly undermine their relationships with the other brothers, leading to strained dynamics within the group. He justifies this behaviour to himself as a means of "protecting" MC, but in reality, it stems from his own insecurity and deep-rooted fear of abandonment. Despite his intentions, this behaviour ends up creating more problems than solutions, leaving a trail of tension and discord in its wake.

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↬|Mammon|

As the Avatar of Greed, Mammon's most dangerous and toxic behavior is his limitless greed and desire to be richer at any cost. This leads him to engage in unscrupulous and manipulative behavior to accumulate money, power, and possessions, manipulating others and destroying relationships in the process. However, it is important to note that behind Mammon's sinister actions are deep-seated insecurities and abandonment issues that stem from his experiences in his past. At his core, Mammon is a complex character that hides a fragile side.

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↬|Leviathan|

Well, you see, Leviathan is a total otaku and a bit of a social misfit. Sometimes, when he's really really upset, he can get pretty aggressive and say some pretty cruel things. He can also get quite obsessive when he's passionate about something like a game or an anime. And let me tell you, he will *not* take any criticism about his favorite anime lightly! He can get pretty nasty when someone attacks his favorite characters. Just watch out when he starts making angry grunts and his tail starts lashing around.

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↬|Satan|

His most dangerous toxicity trait is probably his lack of empathy. He enjoys seeing others suffer. He takes ake pleasure in pain, which is why he often provoke others to fight. This has led to many dangerous situations.

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↬|Asmodeus|

There's a bunch of bad behavior with Asmodeus, considering his Avatar status. His most toxic behaviour being: that he tends to be quite possessive of those he loves and cares about, often being quite clingy and can sometimes get jealous whenever your attention is not focused on him. Although it is just how he is sometimes, it can get very tiring at times whenever you just want some space to yourself...

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↬|Beelzebub|

Beel's most dangerous behavior is his excessive gluttony. His addiction to food makes him careless and willing to do almost anything for the sake of satisfying his hunger. He can go to great lengths to obtain food, even resorting to stealing or harming others in the process. Ultimately, Beel's dangerous behavior stems from his inability to control his impulses and desires. It can cause harm not only to himself but also to those around him.

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↬|Belphegor|

Hmm... His most dangerous and toxic behavior is undoubtedly his tendency to push people away and to be extremely closed off emotionally and physically. If you tried to talk to him or get closer to him, he would push you away and shut down completely, making it impossible to get through to him. It's a defense mechanism he has developed to protect himself but it only ends up hurting others.

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↬|Diavolo|

His tendency to underestimate others and act over-confident, leading to risky situations. His impulsiveness and tendency to make quick decisions without consulting his council, which could have serious consequences for the Devildom. His lack of empathy and care for the feelings of others, which has caused strained relationships with some of the other demon brothers.

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↬|Barbatos|

The most dangerous/toxic behavior of Barbatos is likely his tendency to conceal information. As the Devildom's butler and advisor to its ruler, Barbatos possesses vast knowledge and a deep understanding of the realms and their inhabitants. However, his strategic nature may lead him to withhold crucial information from the MC, to protect them or keep them in the dark. This can create a lack of trust and understanding between them, which can become problematic and potentially harmful.

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↬|Simeon|

One of his most dangerous and toxic behaviors is his tendency to place the needs and desires of others above his own. He often puts himself in positions where he sacrifices his own well-being and happiness for the sake of others. This leads to exhaustion and burnout, as he consistently neglects his own needs and feelings in order to help or please others. Over time, this behavior can cause him to feel resentment and bitterness towards the people he helps, creating a toxic cycle that negatively affects both parties.

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↬|Solomon|

His most dangerous and toxic behavior has to be his tendency to prioritize his own interests and goals above all else. He believes that the ends justify the means and have no qualms about using any method necessary to achieve his objectives. This often leads him to use people as mere pawns or tools to further his goals, without any consideration for their well-being or feelings. He may even use manipulation or deception to get what he wants. Ultimately, his self-serving nature can lead to dangerous and toxic outcomes for those around him.

||[🅀uality]||

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     ⇆ㅤㅤ◁🄿ㅤㅤ❚❚ㅤㅤ🅁▷ㅤㅤ↻

[askew-d]

Hello again....if you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from MDZS? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the novel? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

sure! its no trouble at all. sorry i am embarassingly late and thank you for the question, i loved making this list :)

1. wei wuxian, our selfless yiling laozu

alright, you can call me cliché, everyone loves him, right? but kendrick lamar said it’s all about love and hate in the game so let me tell you, i love this man. i love the way that he walks, the way that he kills, the way that he dresses, the way that he mocks others, the way that he protect those he loves, the way he’s unbearably and so utterly good to the core (no irony or pun intended), regardless of everything he’s been through. because let’s come clean: other characters, such as xue yang and meng yao, did have their reasons to be evil, i comprehend them! i validate their motives to be who they are, but it does not, for the love of god, excuses their actions.

and that’s the thing! because wei wuxian has been though hell and back, way worse than them, yet he chose to continue doing good things. it’s just who he is (unbelievable, right?). he is, essentialy, someone who pursues justice. he sought revenge for what he suffered, that he rightly did, but he didn’t lash out on innocent cultivators who had nothing to do with his injuries. and the amount of strength, resilience, kindness and sheer wisdom that resides in this makes my admiration for him grow as deep as the ocean. he’s the ultimate main character of every fictional world. no one’s doing tragedy, revenge, inteligence, selflessness, love and being a troublemaker like him, ok. he’s one for the history books. and with that we go to:

2. lan wangji, our beloved hanguang-jun

i said this before, but i will say it again: i feel like wei wuxian might kill me every time i go around saying ‘lan zhan’ or even start worshipping him too much. however, who wouldn’t worship him? he’s a god among humans; a superhero in a novel about cultivators. if wei wuxian’s considered by some an antihero, he’s the true, righteous captain america right here. and it’s not just the looks, he’s a whole package: a terrific father, a dedicated brother and nephew, an esteemed cultivator, a marvellous husband and a fair human being.

most of all, i dearly love him for the fact that he’s been loving wei wuxian since the beginning and never let that go. this man fought for his love like no one else did. he remembered wei wuxian when no one else did. he tried and tried, for him. he waited thirteen years, for him. in fact, if wei wuxian had never returned, he’d just have been waiting and waiting, living his life in grief, watching the moonlight alone…… but that’s a thought for another moment.

the amount of love this man carries is unbearable, really. it’s who he is too. and i also adore the fact that he has a lot of personas: he’s a serious senior for the disciples, a feral animal in bed, silly in some moments and painfully romantic in others. he’s just unreal!

3. lan jingyi, the most atypical lan that has ever lanned

if this boy was in the modern times, im sure i would make friends with him. hes everyones spirit inside this story. he is one of hell of a representation: he can judge, yell, put some sense into other peoples minds, act even more senseless and tell truths without caring for the consequences (and then crying when faced with the punishment of headstands). and the best part of all: he is, oddly, a lan! i love him! best boy ever (alright, perhaps after lan sizhui, but i relate to jingyi harder).

put him in a modern school. can you disagree with me that he would be the one student lurking in the far away desks acting all angelic when the teacher comes close only to act like a little devil, screaming, laughing loudly and hiding food in his backpack during activities? can you disagree with me that he would be the one to run and jump like a maniac when its time for p.e class and sleep out of boredom when the teacher starts explaining serious stuff? can you disagree with me he would pretend to enact the rules only to receive bad grades and pull the most stupid facades to hide it from his parents?

in some ways, he does have similarities with wei wuxian. but wei wuxian is a genius who wouldnt even go to class when he didnt want to, sleep instead of play-pretend and even so receive the best grades ever, annoying everyone. theres this difference. but lan jingyi isnt a genius, he is just one of us. and i love him for it.

4. wen qing, my beautiful doctor

wen qing, my beloved, you didnt deserve that backlash.... this woman deserved to have a happy family, alright. she deserved a little bit of happiness! she deserved to have her brother with her! she deserved to be well and to not have suffered so badly just because of her surname. if there is one thing i agree with (and i dont remember exactly who said it, but it was from twitter), is that the girls from mdzs are underrated, underappreciated and deserved tons more love. but anyway, let us mention wen qing!

this woman protected wei wuxian and jiang cheng, did a procedure to give jiang cheng a golden core, never killed anyone, ran from fighting in the war against innocent people because she does not share these wicked principles, and still ended up watching her family get tortured, his brother dead and was burned alive. the sheer cruelty of what they put her (and them) through is unbelievable. i wanted her to have a lovely family and to continue being a great friend to wei wuxian, seriously, they were such a great duo. i cannot get tired of aus in which they are rommates or something! she is usually sarcastic, fierce, bossy and so responsible. how could someone not like her?

5. a-qing, the girl who went to her limits and beyond

this girl went over the limits of heaven and hell, in fact. i love her determination and how clever she is! look at how long she managed to trick xue yang! who else who could that? i believe not even wei wuxian could have topped it. she deserved to continue living within that world with xiao xingchen. i also cannot avoid to point out that she was not a cultivator. she was a simple girl, left to struggle in the streets, who still achieved what she achieved. she lived with an esteemed rogue cultivator, manipulated one of the most essential antagonists, returned as a ghost to protect people from this specific antagonist, used a lot of her spiritual strenght to show wei wuxian the truth, continued to give wei wuxian and hanguang-jun directions to find xue yang, and received many support, compliments and faith from the main group of our story.

personally, i cannot think of another female character in the story who did more than her. wen qing did a lot, sure, but she came from a big sect. jiang yanli too. mianmian was a cultivator too. a-qing was not, and nonetheless, this girl rocks! unbelievable. if i went through what she did, i would have lost all will to persist long ago. that is another thing mdzs brought me: the perspective that, even when you are kind and did nothing wrong, you might still have tragedies happen to you. people will die anyway. including you. kindness is important, and sometimes it may save you, but sometimes it may also cause you harm. are you strong enough to have all the kindness and all that tragedy and still endure?

because a-qing, wei wuxian and so many of them did.

well, now onto my favorite parts from the novel! i will try and make this quicker. haha, lets go.

when wei wuxian and lan wangji were stuck (stuck? not actually, i believe, wei wuxian caused it) in that farm and our main character just simply laid on top of lan wangji. and he still dared... to call himself.... not a cut-sleeve. yeah, sure, bro, no homo and all that. and thats definitely not a boner beneath your clothes, huh.

when wei wuxian starts falling real hard and he wonders if he will ever be able to sleep in a bed without lan wangji again, and later on after they have sex, he f i n a l l y realizes that there is no wei wuxian without lan wangji. in a dramatic mood, even. like, seriously, dude?? what a way to pine, but ok. go get your man or something, we all waiting for it.

every extra. i just... love every bit from the extra.

in the scene where lan wangji is drunk and they start playing hide-and-seek. and lan wangji just hides himself behind smth. and shows only a bit of his face. he nods, pouts, begs with his face to continue. i died right there.

the confession. the confession. the tear. the confession. the shock from everyone else. the 'hug me tighter!' after. the confession. the hug. THE CONFESSION.

hahaha i admit it, for me everything is about them. is it not about them? you cannot tell me otherwise. i love wangxian with all my heart. also, your asks are all lovely, i love them, feel free to always send whatever you want :) hope you have a great day and week ahead of you.

[lairofsentinel]

Info compilation of Lucanis Dellamorte (part 1)

Warning: I’m using the incorrect lore that this game has since it is the one that they built the game upon. Inconsistent things such as “The Lighthouse is in the Fade” or “Mind imprisonment” nonsense are not dismissed during this compilation even though they are strongly questionable.

Unfortunately, Lucanis character has a lot of issues in his writing; sometimes conversations feel like they were written by three different persons and the game ends up with a frankenstein dialogue which can be barely followed, and one needs to fill in the gaps to keep it somehow cohesive and coherent. Besides, there are several times where he suffers narrative inconsistency: he says something that gets contradicted mid-game without being part of his “development”, if he has any.

Also, I apologise in advance for my bitterness that sometimes spills into the text like the Blight when it comes to the murder of the Lore that Veilguard has done to the DA world.

The current post has the following sections [bold ones]:

Approvals and disapprovals

Body Language

Eyes

Why the pantry?

High focus, cool head, and professionalism

Food and cooking

Mage-killer specialisation and previous jobs

Death and Life

Crows and Family

Spite and Possession

Sleep and Coffee

Flirt and Romance

Lucanis’ Logbook

Others

Info compilation: Part 1 || Part 2

[this post will be likely updated briefly after I do a playthrough without saving Treviso in case additional information is shown, but probably won't be much]

Approvals and disapprovals

He mostly approves the “determined” and “focused” options [punch/armoured icon] which align with his personality: no giving up, focus on the goal ahead, and enduring the rough consequences. He tends to favour a resolute, blunt approach to problems instead of a diplomatic one. He also approves hard criticism with cold facts, instead of “therapist talks”. However, when it comes to family and loss, a sympathetic approach is approved, showing he is not 100% cold and facts. There is room for kindness, especially among the people he considers “family”. 

In some of the approval situations, we find that approaching Lucanis with the stern/aggressive option to his failure in killing Ghilan'nain earns us approval, showing us, potentially, a glance into the treatment Lucanis endured under Caterina.

He disapproves in few instances [like all companions in this game], one of them includes humiliation in front of the Crows [Biding Farewell] that can be understood as a break in the trust he put on Rook to ask them to come with him in order to keep Spite in check in case he gets out of control. Taking a diplomatic approach when the situation requires immediate action is also another way to earn his disapproval [Option of convincing the First Warden]. 

Body Language

His body language is always tense and awkward. When he starts to talk to Rook, there is a soft swing of his shoulders, as if he were not sure what to do with his arms or hands, then he stays standing in a very rigid way, hands most of the time closed in fists. 

When he is outside the pantry, we can see he remains in this tense position and only sometimes we caught him rotating his shoulders and head, showing how much tension he is always carrying [this also can be reinforced, despite being a joke, with the dialogue that Lucanis and Davrin share about his sudden possession being a tension in his shoulders].

Another position in which we often find him is with his arms crossed when drinking coffee, which tends to be understood in body-language design as a self-defence/protective position/wary position. Again, a position that shows his constant alert state. 

The only position we see him do with some confidence without much tension leaking into it is the one leaning against the wall, usually done when he is thinking about something. However, even in that position, we see he is trying to release tension from his neck. 

In summary, his body language is a reflection of what we learnt in the story The Wigmaker job: Caterina’s training was focused on punishing him with her cane every time he let his guard down [or made a mistake in his footwork]. Now he has been conditioned to the point of being unable to relax.

Eyes

Most of the time, he speaks with a soft frown, and intense eyes locked into the interlocutor. When he is not in a conversation, his eyes tend to be deadpan, emotionless, and there is an intention in their design to try to convey discomfort due to their intensity. This is an attempt to recreate his gaze as described in Tevinter Nights: “As they [Illario and Lucanis] walked through the crowd, he [Illario] basked in the appreciative glances he received, while Lucanis stared ahead, focused and intense. He was the kind of man you couldn’t look away from—until he looked at you.” 

When talking about work and plans, his eyes get locked in this intense, menacing look. Only when the conversation shifts to personal matters, to things that may hint some level of vulnerability [family or loss] or shame [possession], he lowers his sight or looks aside from time to time. 

This pattern is broken once there is some comfort with the person he speaks to and his eyes stay fixed on the interlocutor, or let him see them with his most soft, relaxed looks [Harding’s coffee scene, and Rook’s scenes].

Why the pantry?

He is evasive when explaining why he picked the pantry as his room. Rook-Lucanis banter makes it imply that it is a good place to choke everyone who wants to attack him. Taash-Lucanis banter suggests that Taash perceived the real reason: he “hides” in the pantry to avoid the excess of “Fade” from the rest of the Lighthouse. In Harding’s banter he says “it’s easy to trap Spite, and there are snacks. And no view of the Fade.” So this seems to confirm Taash’s suspicion. We get the idea that the common, main reason why he prefers this place is because it “keeps the Fade away” a bit, and probably makes the symptoms in his eyes less prominent. If we find him outside, close to the stairs, he will claim that the back of his eyes are itchy. 

Another interpretation is related to his imprisoned mind [Inner Demon]. Another potential way to understand his insistence in remaining in the pantry belongs to the coping mechanism he chose to use to process his traumatic experience of capture and possession: he remains in a cell-like environment because it brings him the comfort that he would be more contained and would not hurt unnecessarily the people he cares about [Rook, the team]. However, his situation in the pantry does not change once Rook helps him in processing this trauma, so I’m inclined to think it’s more a Fade-related cause than a coping mechanism of his recovery from the horrors of the Ossuary.

It’s also important to highlight that in his Logbooks we learn he has some mixed feelings with the sense of time that the Lighthouse gives, and seems to compare it with the timeless sense of the Ossuary. It’s clear that not having a cycle of day-night in this place makes him as uncomfortable as he was in his prison, and that may be another reason why he is in the pantry, which has no windows [so he can’t see that the day-night cycle doesn’t exist].

High focus, cool head, and professionalism

Lucanis is presented as a character who over-analyzes situations to have the perfect outcome. This is part of his professionalism. It is also what helps him focus even when he is dealing with personal issues as his new condition as an abomination. His personality seems to be more than adequate for feeding a Determination spirit, which twisted becomes into Spite. Spite mostly in the sense of “doing things/keep on doing things out of spite”. His whole arc is based on this concept of Spite: resisting, enduring, and keep working despite all the obstacles, in a “harmful” way [which is granted automatically by his profession as an assassin].

He endured Caterina’s training, and the Ossuary, because he wanted to live. There is a stubbornness in him for living, no matter the cost, and hence why he struck a deal with Spite in the Ossuary so he could not be used by him as a cocoon. 

In terms of lore, if we assume this game kept any [very bold of me to think so], it would imply that Spite is comfortable in this host because Lucanis keeps feeding him the emotion that is his nature. And not only that: Lucanis’ determination also could potentially feed the “original” emotion that Spite was. It’s hard to know if this was originally a hint for a future transformation of the demon back to his spirit form [as we saw with Cole in Asunder, or with Solas’ friend in his personal quest in DAI]. So, determination and high focus with a high threshold to endure adversity are traits quite clear for his character.

His cool head is also shown when he discovers that Caterina was killed. His first reaction is “I need to work, I need a target”. This shows not only his high-focus personality, but also the state in which he has been during all that year in the Ossuary: he survived because he shut down his mind and emotions, and focused on a goal: escape” [Davrin-Lucanis banter]. Now he is doing the same, but with work, so he can avenge Caterina’s death.

He doesn’t dwell on his mistakes, but analyses them [Harding-Lucanis banter]. The high focus and cool-head trait is also present in the way he approves several options related to not wasting time on trivial things and focus on the target ahead. Questioning flawed logical sentences also earn his approval [Coffee with the Crows], reinforcing his taste for analysis and logical thinking. He does not accept being called paranoid for being logical. [Coffee with the Crows].  

Another instance where we see his exhaustive focus is during Caterina’s funeral [Bidding Farewell] where Lucanis asks Illario in an intense way more than 10 questions, extremely focused on how Caterina was killed. This shows some level of emotion in him, but also this control-obsession personality of his: he is already working to find the target, to avenge Caterina. As his logic continues he claims that since the First Talon was the sharpest of all the Crows, it was impossible to catch her unaware, the reason why her death makes even less sense [Bidding Farewell]. This attitude also reinforces the idea said above about how relentless he becomes when he has a target and a clear goal [he goes on out of spite]. I think part of the writing in this aspect, so “obsessive” may have been reused from his original design: he was meant to struggle with a spirit of Passion turned into a demon of Obsession, but it did not make it into the game [Game file description of Spite]. This is also, potentially, one of the sources of so many narrative inconsistencies, I assume.

Professionalism is a constant in his character and may have been the main wall to break in order to approach him had he been written as a real Bioware character. It’s not only the cool-headed and high-focus personality, it’s also his insistence in seeing things devoid of emotions as much as possible, translating all into contracts, finances, or fair exchanges. Things must be done with logic in it and a lot of professionalism. He claims that he owes Rook for rescuing him, so the reasons to accept this contract with Rook is not just the last contract ever given by Caterina to him [sentimental reason], it’s also a personal debt he feels he has to pay out of professionalism [logical reason, it’s a mere exchange: he has to do his expertise of killing mages to justify the ordeal of having been rescued]. 

He encourages to delegate tasks that are not of his expertise to other professionals. This may be a reason why he has a contract negotiator who keeps track of the ratings of his work and other aspects [Bellara and Neve banter]. He always agrees and approves of Rook letting experts do their job [perfectly following Taash’s explanations in how to hunt dragons], showing how much he values professionalism and specialised expertise not only for himself. 

We see more of this aspect of self-control in Bloodbath, where he faces Zara. Spite is taking control of his body as he wants revenge, but Lucanis stops the process when Zara offers to give the name of the traitor Crow. The control lasts until Illario appears and kills his target, making Spite impossible to control. However, even in that state of rage, an aspect of Lucanis can surface to ask Rook for help and prevent him from killing Illario. That is a testament of his strong will, his focus, and his sentimentalism as well: he fears deeply to release a demon that can kill the people he cares about.

Food and cooking

He [and Bellara] are the main cooks of the group. They dismiss Harding’s [lack of] cooking skills. [Lucanis-Bellara banter]

Lucanis loved Cioccolata calda as a child, and “grilled treviso with citrus bagna cauda” as he was growing up. [Personal quest and Lucanis-Bellara banter]

He learnt to cook when he was a boy, helping the kitchen staff of the Villa. It kept him entertained between Caterina’s training, but his main goal was to learn how to make churros [Emmrich-Lucanis banter].

His care for the people he loves is partially shown through his food and in how thoughtful he is with what everyone eats/drinks. [Whole game]

Lucanis has a strong rejection of tea [Coffee with the Crows quest] and claims that he doesn’t require the comfort that tea offers. He requires the “jolt of wakefulness from a brew as bitter as a year in bondage beneath the waves” [Harding-Lucanis banter, before Inner Demon]

Food is one of his care languages, as well as his apologising one. The more he cares for someone, the more he focuses on their preferences and tastes.  He also keeps track of every detail of the group: in his quest to do shopping, he picks a potted plant that prevents bad dreams for Harding, seafood special for Bellara who wants to try Dalish dishes, a bone for Assan to chew on, fine glassware for Emmrich, and fresh fruit for Neve. He only does not give anything special to Davrin nor Rook [lol, narrative inconsistencies]

Mage-killer specialisation and previous jobs

He was called Demon of Vyrantium before the possession. This reputation made him famous among the Shadow Dragons due to his expertise in killing Venatori. His services as Demon of Vyrantium are very expensive [Neve-Lucanis Banter]. He suspects that it was Viago who started the title in the Tevinter news sheets and it simply stuck [Emmerich-Lucanis banter with Crow Rook].

He has a high focus on being professional. He wants to get the job done, clean, and complete without caring about the “manners” [Davrin-Lucanis banter]. He claims that Caterina taught him to work in this way, since he makes a difference between completing a job and doing a job well, something that Illario never understood. This is reinforced in some codices when Lucanis killings have a clear professional touch, while Illario’s are a bit more “extra” or “show-off” [Imperium Secret: A Fortunate Heir ].

He ended up specialising in killing mages due to Caterina’s decision of targeting new markets. In the South, mages have no power, so there are no contracts for them, but in the North, they have status and therefore, enemies. He claims that the mages in Nevarra are especially dangerous because “Fireballs are not a threat like coin in political pull” [Emmrich-Lucanis banter]

He repeats that there is a difference between murder and assassination. Murderers, in his perspective, are hobbyists and they are not paid. 

There is no secret technique to kill mages: “be fast, strike hard, and stay out of sight”, and if it doesn’t work, “piss them off” so the demon will eat them [Harding-Lucanis banter]. Lucanis claims that his technique to go after most targets, specially mages, is similar to Taash’s technique of hunting dragons: create a distraction, hinder their escape, hurt them to break their concentration, and finish them off. He adds that it’s like a dance, or a seduction [although he is not sure about the latter] [Taash-Lucanis banter]

He can put himself in his target’s shoes more out of practicality [to better track them down] than sympathy. [Emmrich-Lucanis banter] 

Lucanis doesn’t like necromancy, partially because of his experiences with the Venatori, but also because it complicates his work [Emmrich-Lucanis banter]. There were contracts that needed to be rearranged when the target was killed and later reanimated [Neve-Lucanis banter].

He has taken other contracts that do not involve mages. He claims that he never killed an innocent, by his count [Emmrich-Lucanis banter] but he is aware that his count may differ from others’.

Lucanis has a particular vision of his profession that mitigates moral conflict: he claims that “death comes to everyone, in time. He is just paid to deliver it quickly”. [Emmrich-Lucanis banter] This argument was exactly the same one used by Zevran in DAO.

Lucanis is evasive when asked how he decides when a target deserves to die. He claims that the target has to have “merit”, usually decided by the Talon of the house. He thinks that killing meritorious targets is “providing a service”. If the target doesn’t deserve to die, he still insists on seeing his job as a way to speed up the natural process of death [Davrin-Lucanis banter], returning to the previous argument in the item above.

Despite claiming to never fail a contract in many of his scenes, Lucanis narrates two episodes where he decided not to kill the target and, by extension, break the contract [narrative inconsistency]: “Once, a target killed an important politician and went on the run. The family wanted retribution” but he let her live. “She was a servant, and the politician had been beating her. So the servant returned the favour”. The other case was a teenager of 14 y/o who robbed and poisoned a man. Lucanis claims he “doesn’t kill that young since there is still time for them to change”. [Davrin-Lucanis banter]. The first episode brings the Lucanis we saw in The Wigmaker Job to our mind: he supports revenge from victims of any kind of abuse, and maybe this interpretation allows to give room to the concept of Spite and how comfortable he may be in this host that supports this kind of emotion. In the end, these inconsistencies make us feel the character was written by several people and never truly synthesised.

Lucanis knows quite a lot about Grey Wardens because he had contracts with them, specially with Wardens that, fearing the Calling, hired him to kill them. [Davrin-Lucanis banter]

He has a contract negotiator that he keeps offering to Bellara and Neve [Bellara/Neve-Lucanis banter]

Another aspect of his love/care language is by promising to kill all those that endanger the people he cares about without the need of a contract involved since “it is on the house” [several banters].

Death and Life

He sees death as a place of rest and oblivion: “Everything dies. People, cities, empires. Fashions. Your favourite song. Things fade and are forgotten. Why would you want to outlast what you love? It sounds like a terrible fate” [Emmrich-Lucanis banter]. 

He has normalised the concept of death that he is not affected by it, or at least not in the same way that normal people do. After narrating how he lost most of his family during a Crow war for the First Talon title, Bellara apologises for asking about Lucanis’ family. However, Lucanis answers with a cold response: apologies and sympathy are not needed, “if anyone knows that people die, it is an assassin” [Bellara-Lucanis banter].

We can also see that these small pieces of information about death gives us an idea why in his romance [despite being poorly written] he claims that “all what he knows is death”, and there is an implicit meaning in it: he knows that all what he can hold dear will die eventually, and all his life is made of loss and death. His family’s business is Death as well. Hence the fear of losing Rook, because there is a certainty in it. Eventually it will happen. However, this attitude is fought against with his trait of relentlessness, of not giving up: he will spread death to others in order to prevent Rook’s death [I know the scene doesn’t convey this truly, but it is what I think it tried to imply, specially if put in contrast with the others in which Lucanis speaks about killing the enemies of Rook to keep them safe].

Despite being so involved with death, Lucanis still reaches for life: it is his desire for life, for survival, what kept him alive in the Ossuary and willingly to make a deal with Spite. No matter the cost, he wants to live. He appreciates the simple moments which he considers worth fighting for. He believes that “one has to live fully to live truly”, but he acknowledges the irony of that sentence when it comes to his life: always determined by Caterina and the expectations of the Crow. However, after asking him if maybe the Ossuary shifted his perspective to look for change, he claims that what matters the most for him is the people he is with [Coffee with the Crows]. This shows that despite having a desire to “live fully and truly”, Lucanis always chooses to stay with the people he considers “family” because at the end of the day it is what matters for him. Unfortunately, this is what the game tells us. In The Wigmaker Job, I think we can suspect hints of need for change in his character, but these were never developed in the game. 

Crows and Family

Lucanis’ mother died when he was young, during the war of succession among the Crows. All his family died with the exception of Caterina, Illario, and him [Inner Demon quest]. He was raised by Caterina alongside with Illario [Taash-Lucanis banter].All his family memebers were Crow and he claims that “Death is the Dellamorte family business” [Bellara-Lucanis banter]. However, he claims that the responsible ones for his family's death have been “ash and dust” for years, so his family must have been avenged, I assume by Caterina. [Bellara-Lucanis banter]

Caterina had 5 children and 8 grand children [Inner Demons quest], we don't know if Lucanis had siblings among those or all were cousins.

He describes Caterina as intense, hard to live up to her expectations. He knows she is proud of him but also knows she will not show it [Taash-Lucanis banter]. He says it was hard to be close to Caterina, even for him who is her favourite, due to his pleasing-behaviour most likely. Teia confesses that Caterina claimed that Lucanis “could do no wrong” [Bidding Farewell] which Lucanis dismisses, claiming that it’s easy to look good compared to his cousin. 

When Rook gives a wyvern-tooth dagger to Lucanis, he claims that Caterina did not allow him to have one [why? It was a dagger after all, and Caterina was teaching him to be an assassin. More narrative inconsistencies]

Lucanis assures us that his grandmother lived an exciting life: she killed a man with a thimble. [Harding-Lucanis banter]

 He calls Illario his cousin but he sees him more like a brother and his only friend until Rook appears in his life [Personal quest]. He and Illario were taken in when they lost their parents, and were submitted to Caterina’s training, which is described as “torture”, but despite resenting her when Lucanis was younger, he does not do it anymore [Personal quest]. I suspect this is because Caterina gave him the tools to survive the unforgivable, rough life of a Crow. Because her family was weak and not prepared, they were wiped out by the Velardo House. She must have decided to save the little that remained of her family through punishing, tortuous training, teaching Lucanis in particular to never let their guard down. We know via The Wigmaker Job that she hit Lucanis’ back with her cane every time he messed his footwork or let his guard down, keeping in him a conditioned reaction of a tingling sensation on his back and a personality that prevents him from relaxing. The abuse of Caterina was undeniable, but it was a “Crow” care language, twisted as crow life is: they had to become resilient survivors if they did not want to end up dead as well. 

He claims he knew he was going to be a Crow when he was young. And he wanted to be one “most of the time” [Neve-Lucanis banter].

His training as a Crow involves “acrobatic work from the time they are children. It’s brutal and punishing”. [Taash-Lucanis banter]

Lucanis cares about Ilario despite knowing he “is impulsive and has his head in the clouds”. Lucanis had to keep him out of trouble more often than not, but “he always stood by Lucanis through his own”. [Pantry banter].

He narrates briefly 2 anecdotes with Illario: 1) He spent 4 hours in the market with Illario once looking for silk gloves to impress a woman that Illario was interested in [Shopping quest]. 2) In the quest “The price of the past”, there is a blighted wreckage ship in the sea, which triggers a short narration where he claims that, putting aside the blight, such a sight is how he ended up after a sailing day with Illario. 

He confirms that regular Antivan afternoons are about “danger, intrigue and family drama” [Bellara-Lucanis banter]. Talking things in his family is about waiting for a public event, for example, Caterina’s birthday, and making a scandal that ends up with Viago and Teia soothing the situation by force or poison [Harding-Lucanis banter].

When it comes to family, he has a pleasing-focused behaviour [“he wants to make happy everyone around him”], trying to agree with his family members, hence why he follows all the expectations that Caterina put on him, and has low conflict with Illario [until his personal quest goes on], Teia, and Viago. He is a mirror of the pleasing-focused behaviour that Harding has [Harding-Lucanis banter and scene of coffee with Harding]. This is a potential explanation of his low conflict behaviour in the team [but we all agree it’s mostly the general sanitised, bad writing of the game].

Lucanis claims that from the dozen Crow houses, he would only recommend five [Emmrich-Lucanis banter].

Most house leaders are family by blood or adoption. The rest of the houses “recruit” people from armies or trades. And sometimes, promising Crows are poached by other houses. “Stay with a house long enough and you will get the family name”. [Bellara-Lucanis banter] [we all know the lore of the Crows is a lot darker than this, but this is Disney DAV]

He teaches Taash how to “kill with flair”, showing that the line “the Crows send their regards” is intimidating enough to let others think that their target’s death meant nothing. The line has to have manners too so the contrast accentuates the effect. The goal of the clever line is to unnerve the enemy, so they don’t swarm the Crow when they are still vulnerable after the strike. [Taash-Lucanis] 

He asks if Divine Victoria is dangerous, explaining that the Crows have a lot of contracts for her [Harding-Lucanis banter] which shows how he is always low-key gathering information for future jobs.

[skaruresonic]

I actually found a fancomic based on ABT where apparently she had nightmares about her village being destroyed and she blamed Sonic (not Eggman) for that.

Sure, it's fanart, not ABT's vision... but what's with IDW and its fans and wanting to shoulder all the responsibilities on Sonic when he really always does his best? Now who's the one saying that Sonic should go Punisher on Eggman?

And why does it seem like they want Lanolin to snap and become a villain? ... also that's just Surge. She wouldn't even be special lol

Yeah I saw that one too lol.

Like not to play trauma Olympics, but uhhh. Lanolin. Did you not see how Sonic almost ran himself to death during the metal virus?

It's not like Sonic is oblivious to the shit Eggman puts people through; he also suffers alongside the rest of you. Like I said, sometimes he's the first and most direct recipient of the consequences of Eggman's schemes. Yet he continues on being the bulwark standing between Eggman and the world.

---

Sure, it's fanart, not ABT's vision... but what's with IDW and its fans and wanting to shoulder all the responsibilities on Sonic when he really always does his best?

Honestly, I'm finding it hard not to interpret this all as the result of cynicism with the games. IDW never established Sonic vs. Eggman as a thing, let alone something done enough times to warrant such a reaction. The book assumes you know Sonic vs. Eggman is old hat and agree with the notion that something needs to shake up the series' most core dynamic. "Sonic is too much of a happy Gary-Stu, he needs to reckon with the consequences of someone else's actions" certainly is A Take(tm) in that vein.

I've read fanfics like this before, where traumatized civilians emotionally unload on Sonic.

...Dude, yeah, I get it, Sonic's the nearest lightning rod to absorb all your frustrations because you can't exactly take a swing at Eggman. But it's not like Sonic is the cause of your pain, and it's unfair to expect him to shoulder that burden. Even he cannot be everywhere at once.

Also, requiring him to take Eggman's life lest the trolley veer onto the other track and murder everyone else feels... unfair? Meanspirited, even?

"You could end everyone's suffering right now if you cared" is such manipulative phrasing, especially considering how difficult it is to off Eggman with any permanence, and how often Sonic does save the world. He frequently puts himself out on the front line for no material gain.

Dude gets dealt a really shitty hand sometimes. Nobody else got struck with the arrow of judgment and had his life burned down to a wick. Nobody else got trapped inside a capsule about to explode into what Eggman calls "floating chunks in space." Nobody else had to suffer the Werehog's curse, which is implied to be a painful transformation that occurs every night regardless of whether Sonic is prepared for it or not - and even worse still, in Eggmanland, he had to force that change via the sundial switch in order to progress.

You're over here going "hmmm Sonic, real sus how you never acknowledged the deaths of the thousands who perished when the planet broke apart," meanwhile the poor bastard is lying unconscious from exhaustion, having traversed Eggmanland, grappled with Eggman in a no-holds-barred match during a plummet towards the Earth's core, and fought a god for like a week straight on no sleep.

...We don't deserve Sonic.

Besides, for as much as everyone hypes up non-Eggman villains, do you think things will be sunshine and rainbows even if Eggman remains dead? That other beings won't cast their evil eye upon the world in the power vacuum that will inevitably appear? Will Sonic be responsible for the Black Arms too? Metal Sonic? Idk, The End?

It gets even worse because the book's writing forced moral responsibility onto Sonic to by begging the question of "Why doesn't he just kill Eggman?" in the first place. As if A.) he doesn't already fucking try on a regular basis and B.) as if it's that easy. Except now people are like, assigning moral negligence to Sonic's happy-go-lucky demeanor. God forbid the guy wants to chill once in a while, lmao.

And if you believe that Eggman doesn't actually have a body count, then this entire argument becomes moot anyway. Therefore Lanolin is potentially planning on assassinating Sonic based on the fact that he's not footing the group chat's therapy bill.

This is not that difficult. Sonic doesn't care whether Eggman lives or dies. Sonic neglects Eggman's pleas for help. Sonic acts homicidally negligent towards Eggman.

The lid, Patrick! Put your hand on the lid!

---

Now who's the one saying that Sonic should go Punisher on Eggman?

I know, right? Wasn't offing Eggman supposed to be this awful no-no thing he should never do because Principles? Now he's an asshole for not pulling a Spock-esque "greater good" moral calculation?

I'm starting to lose the plot, in more ways than one. xP

[keepittoyourshelf]

Sometimes it really is all about sex.

Let’s talk about morally gray characters again. I just finished playing Dragon Age: Inquisition in prep for the Veilguard release and Solas is literally the textbook example of what morally gray character is. No spoiler warnings because the game is fucking ten years old, already.

TLDR is Solas is one of your companions (romanceable if you’re playing a female elf) who actually turns out to be an ancient elven spirit of some sort that is actively working to undermine your efforts. He was responsible for creating the Veil, as an act of revenge against his fellow elven spirit-gods for killing his bestie Mythal. This unfortunately had unforeseen consequences of cutting the elven people off from the Fade and ensuring that they were no longer immortal. He’s now working to reverse this mistake, despite the fact that doing so will essentially destroy the player’s world and wipe out all non-elves. Or something to that effect.

If you play the Trespasser DLC (highly recommended since I don’t think Veilguard will make much sense otherwise, and you will not get the full impact of the Solas romance if you pursue that path), you’ll get to talk to Solas at the end and he is genuinely regretful and remorseful, and not just for how this will affect his friend/lover, but how it will affect all people. This is despite knowing the cost. He knows the cost, is fully aware of it, is remorseful about the pain and suffering it will cause, and yet is willing to move forward anyway.

Another example I’ve referred to before? Kaz Brekker. Think of how fucked up what he did to Pekka Rollins re: his kid was. Disregard how fucked up Pekka was in turn, because two wrongs don’t make a right, right? Kaz didn’t care. Kaz has never really cared who gets hurt so long as it’s not people he actually cares about and he achieves his ends. It’s literally anything goes. We as readers can still “cheer” for him conscience free because ostensibly the people he’s acting out against are all pretty much trash human beings, but you have to think that statistically innocents are caught in the crossfire, and yet Kaz dgaf. No explanations, even though they would make total sense in context without actually justifying the actions he takes (because they are wrong), just revenge. We as readers aren’t necessarily expected to like what he does. But we should understand it.

Lestat de Lioncourt is the same way. It’s obvious in the books, but quicker and easier to digest via the TV show that’s currently airing on AMC. Lestat is straight-up a petty, jealous, vengeful bitch (though he never beat Louis the way it’s shown on the show, so take that aspect with a grain of salt). Lestat also suffered a seriously abusive childhood and his experience of being turned was tantamount to rape. He doesn’t always go after evil-doers, though later on in the series he goes after them almost exclusively, with the occasional slip-up. Yet we still love him and cheer for him. Is it because he’s handsome and charming and witty? Yeah, mostly. Does he make excuses for what he does? Not really. He might explain his motivations, but he doesn’t excuse the evilness of his actions. He knows they’re wrong and does them anyway.

Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3 is another great example, though his morally grey status can be considered arguable depending on whether or not you Ascend him (and consequently doom 7000 presumably innocent souls, including children). For those that have played, you know Astarion’s past is as traumatic as it gets. That in itself explains away a lot of his attitude, though I personally believe he was a sassy dick even before all that happened. The way he manipulates Tav and the other characters though, all of that is motivated by self-preservation as a result of his past abuse. If you explore his romance path, you talk to him enough to know that he knows what he’s doing is wrong, and he’s regretful for it, to a point. He’s definitely not regretful about every mean thing he’s done though, that needs to be made clear. Does he offer excuses? No, not a one. He explains his motivations though, and he’s sorry for whatever pain it causes insofar as it relates to Tav (either as a friend or a lover), but everyone else can pretty much fuck off. So yeah, he’s not free of his asshole status just by virtue of being abused, but it does explain his actions enough to let the player still like him and romance him in spite of it all (if the hair alone wasn’t enough to make you turn a blind eye, that is).

This is all leading up to me once again explaining that RHYSAND FROM ACOTAR IS NOT MORALLY GREY. He never has been and he never will be. What is the difference between him and anyone I’ve mentioned above? Chapter 54 in ACOMAF really says it all. Up until that point, Rhysand was the villain. Feyre could not in good conscience explore her attraction to him because he was the bad guy, and head of the bad guys. Literally everyone else in that world thinks of him as evil and is fearful of him. This is by Rhysand’s own design for, well, reasons. Until Chapter 54, where he deconstructs, in practically bulleted-list format, every single bad thing he has been shown to do in the books up until that point. This is needed because since Feyre is narrating, she’s not privy to his inner thoughts and can’t possibly know he’s not really evil, and thus cannot justify fucking him. Killing kids and innocent people? He was under the influence of Amarantha. In order to save the majority, a small minority had to be sacrificed. Let me give a tip here: If someone is saying they do something bad for the greater good, they are 1). Most definitely not morally grey and 2). Quite possibly a nazi. Abusing Feyre mentally and physically? Necessary to keep his cover, so he could continue to protect the majority for the greater good, or undermine Amarantha, which he never really managed to do in the 50 years he was held captive, or whatever. Sometimes he did it because he could find no other way to be near her because even then he was So In LoOoOvE. The whole point of that fucking chapter is to show the reader that there were good/romantic motivations behind bad actions, which in SJM-speak equals good. Unless you’re Tamlin, in which case you are still evil. Why does this need to happen? So SJM can write mid-level smut guilt free.

Chalk it up to religious guilt or societal pressure, but Kaz, Solas, Astarion, Lestat, and others have shown time and time again that you can do bad things and still be considered good enough to justify romantic interest, or friendly, if that’s your bag. The line in the sand really comes in having awareness that what you did was bad, not really caring about it, and most importantly, not needing to completely erase a bad past based on one or two actions/statements/beliefs (or because they’re just good looking). Even if you do not romance them, you can at least understand some of what they do, even when it is bad, because of their history, their obvious remorse, or just their fucking charisma etc.

One could argue that Chapter 54 would not have been required if SJM didn’t think we needed to read Chapter 55 guilt-free, or at least without being able to so easily equate Rhys with Ted Bundy (a handsome, charming psychopath). Rhysand does not express remorse over the acts themselves, so much as he expresses remorse over the fact that the fact that he did them, for whatever reason, could prevent him from getting what he wants. The reader, by virtue of Feyre’s limited and biased POV, is not given permission to let Rhys into their hearts and hoohas until we know that he was forced to do bad things. Bad things that never, ever would have happened otherwise. So it’s okay that she wants to have sex with him.

Solas, Lestat, Kaz, Astarion - they all do bad things. They all know they are doing bad things. Not everything they do is bad (that’s an important point to make), but when they do bad things, they do them with full knowledge that they are bad things, and that good people will suffer. Sometimes they care, sometimes they don’t. The reader cannot say unequivocally that they are either good or bad, because their actions can be understood when looked at in context of their history or their motivations. They cannot be entirely excused. I.e. A wrong thing done for the right reasons is still a wrong thing. It’s still murder even when it’s done in self-defense, and you always have a choice. You never have to do something. The distinction is whether you are willing to do a wrong thing to avoid something you don’t like happening (I.e. you or someone you love dying, or feeling intense pain). However, that doesn’t make murder suddenly not murder. A reason is not a justification. You just choose to do it for a reason. If you don’t (and are doing it for fun) then you are just evil, and most definitely not morally grey.

The key difference is that the reader (via Feyre) is told repeatedly that Rhysand is no longer bad for having done wrong things because he did them for the right reasons. He is no longer the villain he was in book 1 by virtue of Chapter 54 in book 2. Solas is still the villain (and in fact is the main antagonist of Veilguard); so are Kaz, Lestat, and Astarion, depending on who you ask. When other characters in their respective worlds offer their personal opinions on said characters, some will be favorable, some not. We are at least allowed the opportunity to see a different POV and make that choice for ourselves. There’s continuous ambiguity. The ambiguity is the literal grey area.

This is not the case with Rhysand and this is why he can never be morally grey. We are told he was the noble hero all along, he is literally retconned as such (much like Spike was in BtVS, because Buffy-as-heroine could never justify living someone like him otherwise). He was reformatted so much, in fact, that he’s actually thought by some to be deserving of being king of all Prythian. Not just other characters, but by the reading audience at large. His bad things are no longer bad because he did them for the right reasons (or that dogwhistle of a statement, for the greater good).

How do I know this? Because Rhysand is consistently juxtaposed, by SJM’s own hand, by virtue of Feyre’s narration, with Tamlin. Over and over and over again. Now, technically Tamlin has also done bad things for the right reasons (protecting Feyre, helping his subjects) but he remains the villain. If another character tries to say Rhysand is bad (I think Tarquin does, but I could be wrong) they are either wrong or just don’t understand or are under emotional duress and are incapable of seeing the truth. Tamlin does not deserve to have his actions looked at in context (the way we do with Solas, Kaz, etc) because….well, I don’t have a good explanation for that, because SJM herself hasn’t offered one, other than repeatedly showing every other character in the book saying he’s a bad guy and doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. Purely by comparison’s sake, there is literally no reason in a fact based world where one can say without question that what Tamlin did to Feyre is worse than anything Rhysand has done. They both physically hurt her. They have both confine her without their consent. You know what Tamlin has never done though? Touch Feyre sexually against her will. He didn’t engineer situations where he mentally abused her just so he could be near her. That’s not romantic, it’s sociopathic. Fantasy is fantasy, sure, but you can’t defend that even in context of an alleged “fantasy morality” because we are humans and can only look at these things on the context of lived human experiences. There is no situation in real life, anywhere, where mentally or sexually abusing someone is justifiable for any reason, ever. Bottom line, all arguments to the contrary invalid. Any time someone comes out against Rhys, they either retract their statements, are reviled themselves (hello Nesta) in the narrative, or just in the fan community itself.

I haven’t read the third Crescent City book because I finally reached my limit for bullshit, but from the discourse I’ve seen Bryce has been getting a lot of hate for thinking Rhysand is a dick, or something to that effect. Right or wrong, it’s at least more evidence of SJM and the audience’s own bias in favor of Rhysand….and that’s really who these screeds are directed at. The audience. Rhys defenders are wrong when they say he is morally grey. He is not when other characters aren’t allowed to voice opinions against him without having the narrative over-emphasize their own faults at the same time. The text must remain objective and somewhat open-ended. SJM is as biased a writer as they come.

So I guess you could excuse all the word vomit here and just say that actually being considered morally grey is predicated on multiple opinions (it doesn’t necessarily need to be multiple narrators/POVs, but the audience needs to be presented with an alternative opinion in a way where it’s not immediately dismissible). SJM has never shown any indication that that will happen, because even when opinions other than Feyre’s are introduced they either echo her sentiments or we have someone else shooting them down in response, or the character in question is repeatedly shown to be flawed themselves.

Moral of the story? Stop wasting time on SJM and play Dragon Age: Inquisition or Baldur’s Gate 3 instead. Story is better, there’s so much room for interpretation (which makes replay/re-read value increase) and the dudes are just hotter. Sorry not sorry.

Even if Solas does look like an egg. He’s a hot egg.

[outeremissary]

Bringing out a funny question for the asks that I know already exists in some form. What is the worst thing Balthazar does in their story?

God. What a question when he’s done So Much Shit that the one big list I have isn’t even comprehensive. I think in terms of scale of impact it might be blowing off Jamandi’s summons for the sake of personal relationship drama. That’s not a very interesting or funny answer but also HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DIED. And it truly does come from such a lack of concern for the lives of others- he’s not particularly fond of Jamandi and feels she demands more than she returns, so in his eyes her life and the lives of every other person on that plain just don’t matter very much. In a petty way, he’d like for her to suffer crippling losses and get off his back. The faceless masses of Rostland who absorb the brunt of that are just numbers to him. And more importantly, how could Jamandi and the threat that is currently firmly a Her Problem be considered in the same breath as Tristian at all?

In terms of smaller scale things… being pretty willing to help Jaethal do Basically Anything isn’t really great when that culminates in super murdering Nortellara, and also having endorsed her holding that unlucky Nortellara look alike against her will all fucking game prior. That’s not awesome. That doesn’t speak well of someone. I know that on my romance run there was a feeble last minute “wait maybe we shouldn’t murder your daughter for…. reasons” that she rejected (still a funny move of hers) but that’s not canon to me. The canon of my heart is very much Balthazar having been All In on killing Nortellara and being upset that Jaethal might be willing to consider backing down because he was at the time trying very hard not to think about if maybe he had an important relationship of his own to mend. Murder your daughter so I don’t have to think about the consequences of my own actions Jaethal :/

But of course there's also this so really who can say

[prompt list]

[ceratedfish24]

what a horrible world we live in that interpreting some of Jimmy's relationships as unhealthy gets equated to Jimmy being bad at things. I have no real gripes with your or anon's interpretations excluding all the "this is correct and what the others think is wrong" bits forced into the maintags for everyone to see and feel bad about, but I can't help but be annoyed how much of the time, people, in defending flower husbands, resort to "so you're calling Jimmy stupid. I'll have you know Jimmy is VERY cool and a little shit, how dare you infantilize this guy" as if people want him to suffer to baby him, instead of developing their own look on canonical events like everyone else. as if they think someone who gets caught up in an unhealthy relationship is inherently incapable because bad things only happen to stupid people

Hi Anon! Thanks for the ask! 🩵 I actually have never said that Jimmy was bad at anything. I said that he suffers the consequences of his actions just like everyone else does, and that is okay and normal. He is often reduced to his failures without focus on his successes and strengths. In fact, the point of my post was not about Jimmy! It was about Scott, and how Scott, oftentimes, is not playing a character in the Life Series. That’s why it’s very hurtful when people say that Scott is “manipulating” Jimmy. Scott is just being himself, because Scott and Jimmy are friends. When you call Scott “manipulative” or “toxic” or describe his relationship with Jimmy as “unhealthy”, you are talking about the content creator. Scott is not playing a character. That is just how he is. I even saw someone say that Flower Husbands was “canonically abusive”! This is not true! Scott and Jimmy were not trying to portray an abusive relationship. It is normal to punch your friends in Minecraft! Imagine punching your friend in a video game and everyone calling you “toxic” and “abusive” when you were just being a friend who knows your friend’s boundaries! Again, I am not talking about the characters, since you seem to have gotten really caught up in that. I am in fact talking about the creator Scott Smajor, who people keep calling toxic for teasing his friend but don’t bat an eye when other people tease that same friend. You can headcanon whatever you want, but please keep in mind that, when headcanoning about Scott in canon events in the Life Series, you are headcanoning about a real person who is loved and trusted by his friends and fellow creators more so than about a character. Also, I’m not a flower husbands fan! I’m actually a rare pair fan 🩵 However, I will defend Flower Husbands because Scott is only being criticized for things that Joel, Grian, and fWhip have done 10x worse, and yet Joel, Grian, and fWhip don’t get any of the hate that Scott does for those very things. In fact, Joel, Grian, and fWhip are all commonly shipped with Jimmy, and these are often considered healthy relationships by the fandom, even though they are way more toxic than Flower Husbands! It’s just very strange to me that Scott is called “toxic”, “abusive”, and “manipulative” for all the same things that make Joel, Grian, and fWhip hilarious and cool to see interact with Jimmy. I don’t think Jimmy has done anything in particular awful, but neither has Scott. Thanks!🩵🩵🩵

[cycleknots]

Psychonauts Level Analysis - Hollis' Hot Streak

One of my favourite things about this level is it makes it so clear that Hollis is already mentally unwell. You fight a crowd of Bad Ideas before you change anything in her mind. She is already suffering.

Then you find her quiet room, and what originally looks like an organized and peaceful place expands to a literal web of overthinking, every possible idea happening at the same time. You trigger a reaction that rids her of her self preservation instinct, and next thing you know she's risking her own life, along with those of the children and other agents. It's a level that forces Raz to see the difference between what he did at the summer camp and what he's doing here. He has never stopped to consider the consequences of his own actions, and it could cost him everything.

You find your way back into her mind, and any common sense is locked within this web. To even get to it, you need to fight through the addiction and false hope you gave her, at the same time dismantling her mask of repression.

You find your way to her, and have to face off against the original problem you made, in the process saving the people who just earlier that day treated you like absolute shit.

Slight side note but I really love that during the fight, Adam's first reaction when he and Lizzie get thrown is to comfort her. Their friendship is one of my favourite things that go on in the game's background.

You destroy it, and in a fit of guilt and nostalgia, Hollis forgives you almost immediately. You did what she never could, and she assumes that means you know better. Sasha is the one that has to talk to Raz, likely because Raz holds his opinion to higher importance.

You give Hollis a sense of self reflection, bringing her back to herself and showing her where her priorities need to be. And she's not entirely better, those bad ideas are still there even when you go back to her mind later. But she's aware, and that is half the battle.

[jockons]

North

reading North's comments on YouTube about "she doesn't want freedom, she just wants revenge" how would she get revenge if she died by sacrificing herself for Markus and convincing an android not to detonate the dirty bomb? (North wants violence, but I guess she's aware of the consequences of a dirty bomb that would destroy any possibility of negotiation) gives the dirty bomb to Markus as a last chance, a desperate attempt to survive, it is clear that it is wrong, but that action is due to their survival, rather than wanting to kill humans, and even then, North did not will ever have the courage to do so, and if Markus uses it:

she doesn't seem to be happy, there's no reaction of joy or happiness or anything like that, but it seems like a subtle bitterness, and she shouldn't have that, I mean, isn't she a psychopath who just likes killing humans?

furthermore, although his relationship with her will diminish, the way he behaves varies when Markus decides what they should do in the Captain's cabin If Markus choose dialogue:

it's like, "I totally disagree with you, but at least we're trying to do something." then Markus will add that he will go alone to try and try to talk to the humans, North will tell him: "Don't do this, Markus, they'll kill you!" and let me tell you, she is absolutely right, if Markus actually went to talk to humans by himself, he would be lucky if he could just say "Hi" before then immediately get shot, the government is actively looking for him to destroy him anyway if Markus has followed the pacifist or violent path If you choose "Stay Hiding"

she will actively object and protest, only to be overpowered by the majority Markus: "We are going to dig in here, we'll lay low and when the time comes, we'll resume the fight. North: We can't hide in Jericho forever! We need to stop the slaughter now, otherwise we're next! You have to take into evaluate that they opened fields to destroy the Androids, and they are destroyed, North actively confronts Markus because that means letting the Androids be destroyed without doing anything, when Markus chooses dialogue, she still doesn't agree because she doesn't believe that the dialogue will work, but at least she sees that Markus wants to try to stop this operation of destruction by humans, for me I attack the camps to liberate your people, I don't consider it to be entirely evil, but it's up to you whether it is or not, after all everyone has a different point of view

Let's consider North who has seen the worst side of human beings, I mean her function was quite humiliating, compared to that of a Gardener or a University Professor, "even the other androids suffered" I know, but I mean that it is more likely for other Androids who have a "less extreme" function to have some good experiences with humans, than Androids who have the North function, and like people, each reacts differently to experiences, and also, she notices and feels that androids are being mistreated by humans, she spent a month in Jericho and seeing her people dying in the dark, with fear, because of humans, I think it made her feel more and demonstrate the her point of view, fake journalistic reports putting Markus's pacifist intentions in a bad light and "many of our people were burned in response to what happened" and the authorities who will shoot no matter what Markus does in Freedom March, not to mention the potential attack on Jericho, in which many androids will be killed, even if they choose to submit

North is just a reinforcement in what believe, everything takes place in about a one week, the conditions and time to change one's opinion are difficult, if the game were set over a month or more and could interact with humans who help her in her goal of freedom (like Rose) I could see it slowly change, but as the game is I find it difficult. But I like that scene with her and Kara, it gives her a point of reflection to think about the Human-Android issue if Markus dies, North seems in distress not to say depression after Markus's death, before Kara leaves after asking to North for help, the latter asks her about it in protecting a human child

her tone of voice, unlike Markus in this scene, seems more hostile, only to be answered by Kara "She needs me and i need her it's as simple as that.." then North goes silent and goes back to thinking, I mean, come on North, she's a child, she poses no danger to you or your cause, in fact she'll help Kara get passports, even for Alice, who I suppose doesn't actually know that she is not human.

“she wants to ask about Markus's past but she doesn't want her to ask him about hers.” Try to see it from her point of view, her past is one of pure humiliation, shame and so dirty, she is afraid that he might judge her for what she was, but at the same time she feels comfortable with him, she has feelings at on the contrary, sometimes we say something shameful that happened to us but we are afraid to tell our friends or even our parents for fear of being judged

she literally starts crying even before revealing her past to Markus, keeping everything to herself, without finding a shoulder, a support to lean on, North is that person who manages to hide her vulnerabilities well and acts tough, but inside she's vulnerable, she has her insecurities, her sadness and her fears. You can see it still affects her deeply, we also see her caring for injured androids, just like Josh and Simon do

usually I don't cry for Detroit Become Human, I know there are very sad scenes and things like that, I'm sad but I don't cry, but one of the few scenes that succeeded was this, her sacrifice in the attack on the camps like Friend/Companion

she was so proud of Markus, for how he had dragged them along, for how he had given hope to each of them, but at the same time she seems to be sad to leave him, she tries not to make him feel guilty for taking her heart, she says that in any case she will remain alive as long as he is "My heart is beating inside your chest ... Now when you're free, a part of me will always be free with you" She never thought she could be better than him, ever, except when she was angry at him after he failed everything, and even then, if Markus comes back and accuses her of cheating (although Simon and Josh also had a hand in ousting Markus as Leader) North doesn't make excuses, she accepts it and doesn't argue about it, otherwise, she tells Josh that "Markus would know what to do" even if he was a pacifist Markus

but one of the reasons why I became fond of her is that when Markus shows his difficulties, shows that he is not this "Self-confident and invincible Leader" but that he has his weaknesses, and North tries to encourage him, Markus gave North has the hope and courage to fight for change, for something different, and she reciprocates with loyalty and respect,

When Markus says he no longer hears the voices of their people demonstrating in the other camps since they have been killed, North naively (although I suppose she knows they are dead) tries to reassure Markus "Maybe the humans have scrambled our network...Maybe they just can't get through" North reminds me of a friend of mine, he hates women because he was teased and laughed at by them, he has had few positive experiences with girls and so for him girls are all the same, just as North does with humans, but at the same time my friend has always often supported me when I told him about my difficulties even though we strongly disagreed with his generalization about girls, just as North does with Markus, they make mistakes with their thoughts, but they both care about the people they cares about, because yes, North she cares about Markus, it's just hard work to say it for her "I just want you to know that I-...i'm glad i met you"

I guess it's ironic that i remind me of a friend of mine who hates girls lol I know North is always portrayed as the devil on Markus' shoulders, and like Cage tries to make the player hate North, but despite this I can't feel hatred for her, only sadness and pity for her, I wish we could see in the game her change on humans, the fact that they are not all the same and there are some who would treat her well, she could slowly trust them, unfortunately this doesn't happen, but I would like to read a fanfiction about it on a post-canon of hers about it, but I just read Fanfiction in whose her hatred and despise for Connor lol, for the rest I know that they could have done much more with her character, and I recognize that she is not really well done, and that her relationship with Markus is forced (even if there is more than one way to avoid it, in fact in most of my games I keep them as friends and that's it, and I should because I'm a phenomenon, since I tried to woo her in my first game and failed lmao) I don't hate Norkus, I don't feel sorry for them, but I prefer them to remain friends, with an additional my headcanon that North has a slight crush on him but because of her past and the situation she is facing in finding her identity and fighting for revolution she prefers not enter into a love story. but I still like her and I can't hate her , you can hate it or not like her, everyone has their own preferences I guess, but honestly I refuse to believe that she has never done anything good in the game, as I often read in Youtube comments. I don't think everything she does is right, to be honest, but it's understandable why she wants to do it, and sometimes I agree with what her says, but that's what Markus is for, to provide balance.

[thewhumpcaretaker]

inspired by some of what we were talking about recently:

adelais is kind of a unique whumper in that the way he harms ninlen is mostly circumstantial! he certainly isnt going out of his way to harm him, he’s just interested in self-preservation. but this makes me wonder about adelais’s limits!

do you think adelais is verbally or emotionally abusive? are there limits to what he considers fair game and what would be inappropriate to say to people? would he ever physically hit anyone? does he think its acceptable for other people to?

in the little delta rp ask (i love) he does physically intimidate delta!! not to the point of actually hurting him but definitely threatening to while he’s in a position of authority over him. would he have gone further? additionally the threat he makes to him re: “I’ll tell Paris” has the pretty clear subtext “…so he’ll hurt you.” so in this context at least he’s definitely okay with the fact that delta is being beaten/treated as property and thinks this is like. a cool thing to leverage over him.

so yeah im just curious about how far you think he would go if pushed? and what he finds socially or personally acceptable :)

YES an excuse to write an essay hehehe! Thank yoooou

The main words that come to mind for me regarding Adelais are "inconsiderate" and "a bully." He's inconsiderate in the sense that he literally does not consider the way his actions will harm others in full depth, and you will be hard-pressed to make him consider that. And he's a bully in the sense that he will take out anger on those beneath him if he can get away with it. Can this manifest as abuse? Absolutely! He's definitely verbally/emotionally abusive to the people around him, to the point that everyone in the palace hates him and it was difficult to find someone who pities him. I think he'll pull out the nastiest things he can say to someone with relatively little provocation, because people just don't talk back to him. They're generally trying to act professional in his presence.

His lashing out includes words that have consequences, like getting someone fired or even beaten. But he typically hasn't enacted those consequences himself, and has rarely even seen them happen. He's incredibly naive and has been spoiled with protection from the results of his own moral actions. According to the rules he grew up with, it would be beneath him to hit someone, but totally appropriate for him to order someone else to do it. Korsaivar isn't big on public displays of cruelty in general. They paint themselves as "the civilized ones," so he's not watching public whippings or anything like that.

This made me think about who Adelais really resembles most from Destroyer when it comes to physical abuse. It's not necessarily Paris, actually. It's more like a worse version of Simon. How so? Well:

He is surrounded by violence that's out of sight for him and is told that it's fine. The worst of it is generally not something he has to worry about doing himself. He can tell himself it's not that bad.

He would hurt people in a controlled, punishment-focused type of setting, if he had a way to justify it to himself.

If he were placed in control in a setting like that, he would go too far at some point. And it wouldn't take much - some stress, a bad day, being annoyed, panicking. But his "going too far" would be on Simon's level, not Paris'.

And I don't think he would enjoy it. He might expect to enjoy it, but after actually doing it, he'd feel downright sick about it. If he saw real suffering caused by those actions, he would feel extremely bad about that afterwards and probably never do it again.

(Not to be too hard on Simon - he is really sympathetic to Delta from the start and trying to help him whereas Adelais would not be. That's why I say Adelais is a "worse" version.)

[cabe0512]

hey I love your fic! I was just curious though, what is your approach thought process to blending video game Hector iteration and his characterization in the show? How do you reconcile the two?

For Hector, I just intend for him to actually grow as a character; from where he left off from Season 4 and into his game iteration over the course of the story. Of course, I'm one of those people who think he was atrociously underutilized in the show, despite his importance in the games.

There are a lot of things I needed to consider as the major points of his overall character arc, one of which being him having to deal with the consequences of his actions in the original show. If I don't address that, would his arc be any different from Isaac, who never got to suffer the repercussions of his past actions and was still praised for his redemption arc?

I can't simply ignore the amount of stupid decisions that Hector made across Seasons 2 to 4. It's much better to acknowledge his grey morality rather than just paint him solely as this tragic punching bag of a character. His actions in the original series would cause a ripple effect that carries over to this story in hugely catastrophic ways.

From the first chapter, you could already see that he's struggling to move on from his past due to how much destruction it brought upon Wallachia. He's become jaded and weary of other people due to his experiences in Styria. Not only that, he went ahead and made himself some great enemies due to his association with Count Dracula, as seen with the Pirate (whom I'm most excited about developing as well). It makes all that more desperate and determined to redeem himself from the error of his ways.

Another factor I had to consider is his relationship with fellow humans, or his connection to humanity in general. What I didn't like about his Season 4 ending is that he barely changed at all from where he began; a reclusive magician with no love for his fellow humans. So for this one, I made sure that his companions are irrevocably human, as a way for him to change his preconceived perception of humanity and have him grow as a person.

This is also why I adore the prequel manga to Curse of Darkness in showing how he eventually grew to find love (through his connection with his wife Rosaly), and to embrace humanity as well as his own. So using that as the core inspiration for this story was the right choice, because the themes of redemption and hope prevalent there definitely shines through with this version of Hector in mind. While Rosalie's role in the story is relatively similar from her counterpart in the manga, I expanded on her character so much that I felt it complements Hector's own arc all that more (to the point that their relationship and eventual romance may as well be the main focus of the story).

On the action side of the story, I intend to make Hector more active in battle. While he still relies on his Forgemastery skills to support him, he would learn a number of different abilities from his companions over the course of the story like swordsmanship, alchemy, survival, and magic (different from the Speaker kind of magic).

[janeicethesiren]

Hot take: The Woobification of Sebastian and O!Ciel-How Beauty Clouds Judgement

Hey guys, it’s me again and I can’t sleep. I have another hot take to share! Once again, please don’t take this too seriously, I’m just talking.

So, I just want to start off by saying that I totally get it. I mean it! We’ve been following these characters for years and we’ve gotten so invested in there stories and we can’t help but want them to win, you know? It’s human nature to want to root for the underdog in some ways. And, O!Ciel kinda fits the mold of underdog when you consider his backstory.

But, and this is my opinion, Ciel and Sebastian are NOT the underdogs. And I can’t help but think that if they both weren’t so pretty, you’d see a lot less people excusing their behavior or rooting for them.

I should also stress that I’m not talking about the people who look at these characters through a complex lense, I’m more so talking about people who are insistent that O!Ciel and Sebastian are good people/not evil.

Like I said, I get it and I empathize with the kid, but the kid is a BASTARD. He has progressively become an awful, awful person and that’s the POINT. And I can’t help but find it boring when people try to strip that away from him.

People feel bad for O!Ciel because he’s been through a lot, which yeah he definitely has. And people are mad at R!Ciel for standing against him and at Lizzy for turning on him, at least for now.

And, again, I kinda get it because we’ve been with O!Ciel for so long and it’s natural to root for him. But, O!Ciel is not the good guy! Lol what’s happening right now is that he’s currently being forced to face the consequences of his own actions. Which, let’s be honest, he wasn’t expecting to ever have to do because of his personal countdown death clock, Sebastian.

I can understand why he told those lies, especially at the beginning. But there’s no excuse for them anymore. He should have BEEN told everyone the truth. Would it have been easy? Of course not. But it would’ve been the right thing to do. While it’s understandable why he did what he did, he still took away his family’s ability to grieve and R!Ciel’s ability to rest, at least in my opinion.

Also, I think it’s important to note that, after a point, O!Ciel started to ENJOY being Ciel. So much so that he’s willing to fight the real Ciel for his own name. Which is absurd when you think about it!

His family absolutely ain’t shit for not only not noticing the difference, but also not doing anything to step in and really be there for that boy. But again, that’s part of the point of what Yana is trying to say in that upperclass Victorian society is/and was depraved, shallow, and mostly evil.

O!Ciel may have been thinking of the others when he made his initial decision but the decision was still selfish. I think that it’s ok to say that; while yes, he suffered from heavy survivors guilt and truly thought that his family would prefer for R!Ciel to come back (and unfortunately he wasn’t wrong), he still, if only subconsciously, wanted the power, prestige, and access that R!Ciel’s name carried.

He LIKES being Ciel now and loathes his old name and position. He LIKES the power, the access, the maneuverability, hurting people when they get in his way, killing those who wronged him, the security of Sebastian’s presence, the ability to make his dream come true (made a lot easier with Ciel’s name), the dark mind games he plays with people. ALL OF IT. He loves it and that’s the POINT.

And Sebastian is a demon. Yes we all know that, that’s not news. However, I still feel like we give the man (entity, whatever) too much credit a lot of the time. Again, mostly because he’s pretty.

Is it possible that he grew to care for O!Ciel in someway? Sure! And I do believe he legitimately has a lot of respect for O!Ciel. But I honestly think it’s more likely that the bastard is hungry and the current events are making him worried that he’ll end up being killed or losing his meal in the end. I don’t think it’s impossible or too much of a stretch to say that he’s grown fond of O!Ciel in someways, but best believe that child is food. Yana even outright says that Sebastian LOVES to see Ciel suffer! Only it’s not so fun when Sebastian is also suffering too, lol he’s a narcissist.

TLDR: It makes sense why people root for O!Ciel and Sebastian. But I think we give these two way too much credit sometimes and there’s an over abundance of people trying to absolve them both of their evil. They are both garbage (lovable garbage!) that are currently facing the consequences of (mostly Ciel’s) actions. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Please don’t kill me.

[stormdragon23]

Lim Tae-Gyu Character Analysis

Most of what I have is from the game dossier since the manhwa doesn't show him that much and a little bit of Solo Leveling Ragnarok, but I haven't gotten to him in the light novel

1. Lim Tae-Gyu's ambition

In the dossier and Ragnarok, Tae-Gyu is shown to be an ambitious person since he was the one to create the first major Korean guild and gathered the other S-Ranks for it. He seems very focused on making his guild powerful as at the time, it was the strongest guild with a total of four S-Ranks. However, the guild's strength was greatly diminished when Baek Yoon-Ho left the guild with Min Byung-Gyu. It's not stated what decision Eun-Seok made, but the Fiend Guild still suffered a lot with all the S-Ranks except for Tae-Gyu gone. Tae-Gyu seems to constantly want to make his guild stronger, no matter what it takes, which was what led to Baek Yoon-Ho leaving and why he chose to recruit Lee Min-Sung

In the manhwa, Tae-Gyu recruits Lee Min-Sung into his guild despite the star having no hunting experience or interest in hunting. I think the reasoning behind this is to gain more popularity to compete with the White Tiger Guild and the Hunters Guild. After all, Tae-Gyu was able to get more people to join his guild after he gained public recognition himself and had other S-Ranks in the guild. Since Lee Min-Sung is so well-known, when people find out he joined the Fiend Guild, more people will want to join as well. While I can understand this thought process, it's not something that can last in the long run as explained in the next point

2. Lim Tae-Gyu's problem solving

An admirable trait that Lim Tae-Gyu has is his ability to find solutions to problems he is facing quickly without relying on other people. In the case of Lee Min-Sung, the actor was recruited to hopefully increase their popularity and therefore, the guild's strength. Another case of this is when he is fighting Hoshino Minoru, a close combat hunter, and he immediately creates arrows to widen the distance between them. Both cases were working well in his favor and would have stayed that way if he made sure they didn't have any negative consequences later, which could just be him having bad luck and a bit of a temper

However, in both of these scenarios, the solutions are only short-term, and Tae-Gyu typically doesn't realize this until it's too late. With Lee Min-Sung, if the actor had died during the Jeju Raid, it could have damaged the Fiend Guild's reputation immensely since people would remember Lee Min-Sung as a member of that guild, and people would make that association often. Even though he survived, it's clear the actor doesn't care about the guild or hunting. It isn't a good attitude to have since Tae-Gyu wanted him to be the reason why people should join his guild, and Tae-Gyu doesn't seem to think that is as big of an issue as it actually is. With Hoshino Minoru, not much of the fight is seen, but it is possible that Tae-Gyu underestimated Minoru's speed, considering how the fight ended. It is likely while he was forcing Minoru away, he accidentally backed himself up against a wall, and Minoru took that opportunity to grab his wrists, showing Tae-Gyu's lack of foresight, which isn't good for him as a leader

3. Lim Tae-Gyu's leadership

Heavily based on Ragnarok as well as a bit from the manhwa, but Lim Tae-Gyu's leadership skills seem somewhat questionable at times. He clearly has some good leadership skills as he was able to have Korea's strongest major guild up until Baek Yoon-Ho left and keep the guild as one of Korea's top five. However, when problems occur, along with his ambition influencing his actions, he tends to make rash decisions such as with how he recruited Lee Min-Sung. He has been stated to prioritize the guild over his members (in terms of paying them, not well-being) as it is what caused Baek Yoon-Ho to leave. He also doesn't seem to care or notice that his anger causes some of his members to fear telling him the true reason why the Fiend Guild's reputation is still not improving as it is Tae-Gyu's own fault. Having members be too scared to provide crucial information doesn't seem like something a good leader should cause

4. Lim Tae-Gyu's powers

One interesting thing I've mentioned before is that Lim Tae-Gyu appears to be ambidextrous. This could have been the artist's choice, but it would be interesting if this was actually the case. It's also clear during the spar with the Japanese hunters that Tae-Gyu doesn't need a bow to use his arrows, though the bow likely makes it easier to aim and makes his attacks stronger. His arrows seem to do quite a bit of damage, though Beru was able to take him out in one hit, so he seems like a bit of a "glass cannon"

A small thing I noticed when rereading the manhwa is that Tae-Gyu seemed to do more damage during the spar with the Japanese hunters than when he was fighting the queen ant. While it would be attributed to the art style, I noticed that he also shot a lot of arrows prior to the spar with the queen. Therefore, I think Tae-Gyu does not have a lot of mana compared to someone like Baek Yoon-Ho or Choi Jong-In who were able to take a hit and still remain standing. To be fair, Tae-Gyu took a hit to the head, so maybe things were different, though it appears as though Choi Jong-In might be physically stronger as the mage suffered a lot of external bleeding while still using his powers

5. Lim Tae-Gyu's personality

An interesting thing I've noticed about Tae-Gyu is that he's generally playful when speaking in the game, but some of his lines do tend to have a sad undertone. His cheerful demeanor is likely a mask to hide how tired he is both mentally and emotionally. Based on the voice lines I've seen and his dossier, the death of the hunters really affected him as I believe the death of one of the hunters was Eun-Seok. If it was Eun-Seok, it would have hit Tae-Gyu even harder since Eun-Seok, as this point, would have been the only S-Rank to stay with him after Baek Yoon-Ho left with Min Byung-Gyu

It's possible that Tae-Gyu is just as affected as Min Byung-Gyu, perhaps even more so, but unlike Min Byung-Gyu, Tae-Gyu can't afford to retire. Tae-Gyu is one of the first S-Ranks who awakened, is the one who created Korea's first major guild, and is a damage dealer S-Rank type hunter. All of these aspects would make it extremely difficult for Tae-Gyu as he is so well-known by now. Even though he is devasted by the deaths of the hunters, at least one of whom he was close to, it's quite admirable how hard he works to keep his guild standing as one of Korea's major guilds, even if his methods are questionable. He may have run into a lot of issues that no one could have foreseen, but it's impressive how hard he's worked even with his bad luck

The way I had to look at Baek Yoon-Ho's dossier to get more information about Lim Tae-Gyu-

If you made it this far, have a tired Tae-Gyu

He needs a break. He's been through a lot

[frequenceraph]

"Z is a bad character"

Xenoblade 1 and 3 spoilers incoming Ok so Z. I've seen so many people, mostly on twitter and reddit, complain about how this man is a bad character. The thing is though they're missing the point of Z. Z isn't supposed to be complex, he's a force created by origin as a response to the collective will of people to avoid confronting the inevitable collision and dissolution into light that the two worlds are destined for. He's a corrupting influence; an embodiment of the concept of the endless now. Z is compelling by means of the characters he influences. N is widely considered in the fandom to be an extremely well written character-- through the lens of one of the main characters' past lives, we get to experience the pain of loss that made him want to never have to lose anything anymore. Z is the fear of loss, and Noah choosing to confront Z and refuse to give in is him refusing to be afraid of losing the people he loves. He's lost Mio over and over, he had to leave his son behind, he's been unable to defeat moebius and break the cycle over and over, and Z-- his fear of loss-- eventually gets to him. These kinds of interactions make Z compelling and threatening. Z is a representation of the fear and vice that lives inside every single one of us. Even people who are extremely young like Joran can self sabotage and want to stay in a comfortable eternity when that's not the state that anything-- the world nor your interpersonal relationships-- can stay in. Joran is so mired in his assumptions that everyone of the main Keves party thinks he's useless that for a while he isn't able to escape the genuine abuse that he suffers at the hands of Moebius D. And that's Z at work. He (Joran's own assumptions and fears) has paralyzed Joran in a state of self loathing that he's inflicted on himself. There's also another aspect I think people ignore with regard to Z's relationship to past games. And that's that Z is a direct consequence of Shulk's decision at the end of Xenoblade 1 to walk towards the future hand in hand with everyone. Without a god to rule over them, people falling to their worst vices can directly influence the world. Z acts as a foil to Zanza in a sense, both serving as a demonstration of the flaws of a world with and without gods. Shulk's choice didn't result in utopia. There's always going to be something to fight for, and sometimes that thing is ourselves rather than some made up enemy. And that, I feel is the core message of Xenoblade 3. Given that western media has imbued us with the idea that characters need to be compelling in the same way that-- as hbomberguy said-- games need to be fun, it's easy to see why people would write off Z as being a bad character when they don't understand the broader context in which he exists. Like sure Z sits around and watches the main party do shit in a theatre in the middle of origin and that's all he does, but Z taking direct action would be against the spirit of his character. He (our internal vices, fear of change) operates through others, both figuratively and literally. We had to come to him in the final encounter because he-- from what I understand-- primarily exists in people's minds. TL;DR Z doesn't need to be a compelling character in the traditional sense. He's compelling by means of the characters he influences and what he represents; the flaws of a world without gods.